Maryland mall workers well trained for shooting

Jan. 27, 2014
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Maryland State Police patrol the Columbia Mall after a fatal shooting on January 25, 2014, in Columbia, Maryland. Three people were killed in a shooting at the popular shopping mall, located about 45 minutes outside Washington, authorities said Saturday. / JIM WATSON AFP/Getty Images

by Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY

by Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY

Stacy Hanson was buying his wife a Valentine at a Salt Lake City card shop seven years ago when a gunman entered the store. There was no back room, and customers hid where they could. Hanson tried to talk to the man and was shot three times, partially paralyzed from the waist down.

News of a shooting Saturday at a Columbia, Md., shopping mall brought back a flood of memories for Hanson -- one of four people injured at Trolley Square that day, when six died.

Two employees of the Zumiez store at The Mall in Columbia were killed and the man police identified as the shooter, Darion Marcus Aguilar, then killed himself.

Those with painful memories include Hanson, who was one of four injured in the Utah shooting spree that killed six others, including the gunman. A former advertising copywriter who was an avid outdoorsman, Hanson read about the Maryland shooting in his local newspaper but didn't need it to remind him of his personal horror.

"I think about it every time i get into my wheelchair," Hanson said Sunday.

Security training and other measures are ramping up at malls and stores, which are increasingly working closely with law enforcement to combat the threat of shootings and possible terrorist activity.

Since late last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Department of Homeland Security have held training seminars with retail officials across the country. In November, managers from The Mall in Columbia attended one of those seminars at a local college, says Rich Mellor, the senior security adviser to the National Retail Federation. The association updated its 2011 guidelines for dealing with shooters last year.

"We've seen evidence of the lives saved by people doing training on this," Miller says.

The shooting Saturday was but the latest in what appears to be a growing number of mall shootings, though store security experts say shootings at schools and other places still far outnumber those in retail settings.

"The chances of some violent incident on a street, at a gas station or at a busy sport venue, are much greater," says Joseph LaRocca, founder of RetaiLPartners, a loss prevention consulting firm.

Still, retailers and law enforcement officials have stepped up security efforts.

When shooting broke out in Columbia on Saturday, store employees and customers appeared to follow the right protocol, experts said. When a gunman is in a mall, store employees are supposed to take customers into a back room, close the door or store gates and wait for police to tell them when it's safe to leave.

"It looks like it paid off. They did exactly what they were supposed to do," says Jim Sadler, senior general manager of the Westroads Mall in Omaha, scene of one of the largest retail shootings on record in 2007, when eight people were killed and four injured.

While little can be done to stop someone intent on killing in a confined area full of people, mall and shopping center owners have stepped up training on how to respond to violent incidents. Many conduct drills and practice evacuations.

The retail federation last year updated its 2011 guidelines on dealing with so-called "active shooters," who are distinguished from armed robbers just trying to get out with merchandise or money.

Hanson's approach is not recommended.

"Active shooters don't negotiate or converse," says Miller, who has headed loss prevention and security at retailers including Macy's and Helzberg Diamonds. "You are going to have to fight for your life."

The guidelines, written in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, now urge store workers to tell those who can safely flee to keep their hands up and remind them that police can't respond to those who are injured until they have dealt with the gunman, Miller says.

Customers inside stores are still urged to seek shelter in the back behind locked doors or gates, but Miller says the latest guidelines recommend that people "evacuate if it's safe and you know where the shooting is coming from." Often, however, the sound of gunfire can echo and its location can be difficult to determine.

Sadler's Omaha mall finished extensive training last year in how to respond to shootings, even though mall employees had responded properly in 2007.

"It's like in schools now," Sadler says. "You don't just drill for things like tornadoes, you drill for shootings, too."

Shopping areas have to balance their desire not to alarm shoppers with the need to protect them. Metal detectors could give people second thoughts about entering. The former Bannister Mall in Kansas City, Mo., tried putting towers with armed guards on the roof years ago, which understandably heightened concerns and was discontinued.

"If this type of thing keeps happening, I would envision much tighter security at malls, most likely with metal detectors and fewer entrances," says Dan Doyle, chief human resources officer and former loss prevention chief for the 500-store Beall's chain in the Sun Belt. "I want to make it clear, though, that I still believe it is safe to shop."

Parking lots have always gotten attention as potential areas of crime, especially around the holidays. Now, they're getting more scrutiny.

Retailers now "look at the common areas and the mall parking lots equally the same to make sure they are safe and secure," Sadler says. "But there is a definite balanced approach that you have to take" in protecting shoppers but not alarming them.

Anne Bagley, who hid in a store closet at Trolley Square that day seven years ago, has never been able to go back there. Although her grandchildren, 14 months old and 3 years old, didn't see what happened, the five family members were rushed out of the mall "straight past the shops where the dead bodies were." All the fire trucks prompted the youngest girl to ask, "Where's the fire?"

Recently, when her grandchildren were visiting from New York, Bagley says they drove by the mall. The older girl, now 10, said, "There's Trolley Square. That's where I almost got shot." Bagley says they reassured her, "You were safe. We were protecting you."

Hanson, who says he used to be more cynical, has been heartened by all the kind-hearted people who have since helped him and tries to forget about the "horrendous people in this world."

"What you have got to understand is that it is something that happens and it wasn't your fault," Hanson says he reminds himself. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."